Why is constant Bluetooth check needed?

starnet59

I understand that Bluetooth is required when turning on the S50 and connecting over WiFi. But why check Bluetooth continuously all the time? I connect my S50 to my LAN over WiFi and I have good reception both outside at the S50 location and all over my house. But as soon as I go out of Bluetooth range, about 10 meters, the WiFi connection to the S50 drops, within seconds. The only way to reconnect is to get back into the 10-meter Bluetooth range.
It is so bad that my Android phone is complaining that the Seestar app Bluetooth is draining my phone battery:

I do have other apps running in the background but the Seestar is the only one that gets flagged.
Why is this required and what does it achieve, other than annoying users? Do I have to leave my phone outside near the S50 and try to connect with a second phone over WiFi? It sounds silly but would that work?

Support@Seestar

Bluetooth is only used as an auxiliary verification. You can turn off Bluetooth after connecting to Seestar WiFi. You can also choose not to turn on Bluetooth and directly connect to Seestar WiFi through your mobile phone WiFi.

starnet59

Turning off Bluetooth on my phone after I connect to the S50 makes no difference. As soon as I go in a different room the S50 disconnects and without Bluetooth it cannot reconnect. I have very good WiFi coverage everywhere but as soon as I am more than 10 meters away from the S50 the link drops and without Bluetooth it will not reconnect.

Is this normal? I have had my S50 for 20 months now and it has always behaved like that, I thought that's the best it can do. Why does the WiFi connection drop if I am more than 10 meters away from the S50?

Daemon42

starnet59 It is normal. The actual wifi power of the SeeStar unit is incredibly weak. FWIW, this seems to be the norm for any type of camera I own that has Wifi (Canon EOS 6D, Nikon Coolpix P1000, etc).
They have Wifi for remote control and transferring photos, but the usable range is like 15-20ft.

At home, I use station mode, and Seestar can talk to my home wifi router from 40+ ft away outside, and my phone much further than that. Out in the field I use a small USB powered wifi router and also use station mode (connecting both S50 and my phone or tablet to the router). If I position it right, it can give me about 100ft usable range.
Also, I think some people have managed to get the Seestar unit to talk to their mobile device's Hotspot wifi network in station mode. I think I got it to do that, but then couldn't get the phone to talk to the Seestar unit. Maybe S50 + tablet could both connect to the same hotspot wifi and talk to each other while the phone just hosts them.

starnet59

Daemon42 But I am not moving the S50 relative to the WiFi router, I am only moving the phone. In station mode the S50 talks to the router, not the phone directly, so why does the position of the phone relative to the S50 matter?

Daemon42

starnet59 I've never seen anything to suggest that it does. I've setup a portable router 30 feet from the Seestar unit and my phone another 60ft beyond that, so phone is 90ft from Seestar, without issue.

starnet59

I am imaging as I type this. My S50 immediately disconnects as soon as I move more than 10 meters or so from it. It always did that, since I got it 20 months ago, to me that's normal behavior. To reconnect I have to go within Bluetooth range, it's a real pain. I have my Dwarf 3 right next to it and the WiFi connection to it is solid from any room of my house.

starnet59

One more thing, which makes me think this is at least partly a software issue too. Sometime, like right now, after I lose connection because I move with my phone to another room, the SeeStar app hangs up and is never able to reconnect, I just see a constantly spinning wheel. If I close the app and restart it, it automatically reconnects in a couple of seconds without me even pressing the reconnect button, as long as I am in Bluetooth range. I move away and the WiFi drops again, not immediately but after a minute or so. Very strange and this is not something new, it has always behaved like this, since I got the S50 almost two years ago.

Daemon42

And I'm telling ya, it doesn't work that way. It sounds like you're not really in station mode at both ends, and are just contending with the Seestar's very weak wifi signal when its the host. It has nothing to do with bluetooth. Make sure you mobile device is actually connected to your home wifi, not to the Seestar's wifi.

I just tested again. My Seestar is right now is 10 ft outside my front door, about 30ft from my router. I can go to the far corner of my house which is another 40ft from the router, and 70ft total from the Seestar, through several walls (including one brick one), and Live view updates normally, and when I load the on-device Seestar album, I can cycle images at full res very quickly. It is behaving entirely normally, and I have no bluetooth connection to Seestar at all at any point.

To be clear, in station mode.. Seestar is connected to your home wifi.. (or a portable wifi router) and your mobile device is also connected to the same wifi network. They'll each have a local IP on that network and use Network Discovery to find each other (same thing that makes \seestar address work from your home PC when in station mode). There's no direct connection between them at that point.

starnet59

Daemon42 Obviously, my mobile is connected to my home WiFi and not the S50, I am not an idiot. I find your tone condescending, bordering to rude, so instead of responding I am just going to ignore your posts.

Daemon42

starnet59 I assure you there is no "tone". I am trying to help you solve your connectivity issue by ruling out the most likely cause of it. I can state unequivocally that it has nothing to do with your Bluetooth range. When my mobile device is in range of my wifi router, I have access to the full functionality of the S50, and I am never connected to the S50 with bluetooth unless I'm using it in the field without my portal wifi router.

Lilo

starnet59
Something is wrong with your device.
BT is needed once when you pair for the first time with Seestar. After that everything works over WiFi. You can even turn BT off on your phone.

starnet59

Daemon42 OK, I accept you did not intend to be condescending, but you are not really helping by assuming that the most likely explanation for the problem I am describing is that I have no idea what I am doing. I never not use the direct WiFi connection to the S50 because I lose Internet connectivity on my phone. I am definitely connected to my WiFi router with both the S50 and my phone.

starnet59

Lilo Yes, I do think something is wrong. I plan to do more tests today based on your suggestions during daytime.

Daemon42

If you've got a windows PC on the same network as your wifi, one way you can test whether station mode is working correctly from the Seestar's side is to do Start - Run - \\seestar
If working, it'll use network discovery to find the device and pop open a window to a virtual drive on the Seestar unit, to access photos.

starnet59

Daemon42 I obviously have a Windows PC on the same network as my WiFi, you are making wrong assumptions again. I am not sure what you mean by "do Start - Run - \seestar" but if I type \seestar in my Windows Explorer address bar, it does see the S50 when it is on and I get this dialog:

However, I do not know what the credentials to log in are.

Lilo

starnet59
Connection is anonymous without any name and password. Probably this can help
https://bbs.zwoastro.com/d/25012-hi-zwo

starnet59

Lilo Yes, I saw that and already tried it, it makes no difference. While I see the S50 over WiFi, I can ping it and try to connect to it, I can never get past this login dialog. I was never able to transfer files over WiFi, I always use USB.

starnet59

starnet59 If anybody knows how to access the S50 files over WiFi with a Windows 11 Home PC I am all ears.

starnet59

OK, I think I found the root cause of this. It is obviously not Bluetooth, although this is required every time you connect for the first time or reconnect.
To reassure Daemon42, I am not using the S50's WiFi but my own home WiFi to connect. Using a third PC computer I constantly pinged the S50, which again serves to confirm that I am using my own WiFi. I did the test during the day in Scenery mode but it does not make a difference. As soon as I moved away from the S50 to a different room, the connection dropped, then it reconnected as soon as I got back within range. All this time, the ping test on the third computer showed that the S50 was still connected.
The cause of the problem was a WiFi repeater, which very ironically, I installed trying to improve the WiFi for the S50 when used outside the house. As soon as I stopped this repeater, the ping to the S50 started to fail, then after a few seconds it started to work again. With the repeater off, the SeeStar app on the phone did no longer disconnect as I moved through the house.
The explanation is that the S50 was always connecting to the repeater, while the phone was connecting either to the repeater or the router as I moved away from the S50.
The lesson here is that while a repeater can be used to extend the reach of the WiFi, it does not necessarily extend the distance between the S50 and the phone with the SeeStar app. I do not see a way to control whether my phone connects to the router or the repeater, so it looks like I will have to give up on using the repeater, at least during the nights when the S50 is being used.

KatNRick

starnet59
Windows 11 Home v 24H2

SeeStar S-30 in station mode setup 2.4ghz wifi
Laptop using 5ghz wifi or 2.4ghz wifi or 2.4ghz wifi repeater or 5ghz wifi repeater ( I changed wifi to each and checked)
Not sure where I copied this a few months ago but just checked a few minutes ago.....

"Station Mode is not only for control over wifi, but can also be used to transfer files, even while stargazing is active. For PC users:
right-click on This PC, and select 'Map Network Drive'.
Enter '\Seestar'
it will ask for a username and password. It is your device SN as the username s30_myserialnumber and your password is 12345678 S50_yourserialnumber in your case (seems to be the station mode wifi name/password)